LONDON , England -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Violence and heavy metal seem to have been inextricably entwined since the dawn of the metal genre .

Accusations that the Columbine killers were influenced by Marilyn Manson 's music were found to be false .

Judas Priest , Marilyn Manson and Black Sabbath are just some of the household metal names to have come under public fire for supposedly inciting teenagers to commit murder and suicide .

It 's a fire the international media has been happy to flame , quick to draw links between various acts of savagery and heavy metal even if , as in the case of the Columbine shootings and Marilyn Manson , evidence points to the contrary .

For anthropologist , documentary filmmaker and self-confessed `` Metalhead '' Sam Dunn , heavy metal is often used as a scapegoat to distract from the thoroughly more complicated societal problems surrounding such incidents .

`` I think people look at heavy metal and label it for all sorts of things because we need easy answers to complex questions , '' Dunn says .

`` I think that it 's easy to target a heavy metal band for inciting violence or making kids turn to a cult than it is to actually look at real problems in the real world . ''

It 's easy to see where the journalists , parents and religious groups get their ideas from .

A quick scan of the lyrics of any heavy metal band worth its salt will often reveal some gasp-inducing subject matter .

For instance in his film `` A Headbanger 's Journey , '' Dunn quotes some of his favourite lyrics by a metal band called Autopsy : `` Burning from the inside out , bloody foam spews from your mouth , smell the putrid stench of flesh , as it burns you to your death . ''

Not the sort of poetry to be quoting to grandmother over lunch , but can such ludicrous gore really incite people to violence , not to mention murder ?

As one young Norwegian metal fan told the UK 's Guardian newspaper : `` It 's all fantasy , none of this is real , you ca n't take this seriously , it 's just like a movie . ''

But compared to some of the images filling our cinema screens -- The Devil 's Rejects , Wolf Creek , The Passion of the Christ to name a few -- even Autopsy 's lyrics seem a little tame .

`` I have listened to enough metal for me to essentially be a serial killer , '' says James McMahon from UK music magazine NME .

`` But there 's something in me that says no , that 's not what I believe life is about . Serial killers existed before Slayer , you know . ''

`` I 'm a big fan of horror movies but Hostel , Saw , those torture porn films , I found myself repulsed -- metal is pantomime comparatively . ''

As Alice Cooper quips : `` There 's more blood in ` Macbeth ' than in my shows and that 's required school reading . ''

For metal musicians , death , blood and mayhem , in its various guises , are all simply part of the act , part of `` the show . ''

`` I think it comes from being a child of the '70s , '' says Iron Maiden 's lead singer Bruce Dickinson . `` I was brought up on Hammer horror movies and things like `` The Devil Rides Out , '' classics like that . ''

`` So while we do the devil type things , it 's done ... I would n't always say in a tongue-in-cheek way , but there is an element of it . It 's done with a view to storytelling and drama , with a bit of dressing-up going on . ''

Iron Maiden has also endured its fair share of controversy . The title of its 1982 album , `` The Number of the Beast , '' and repeated use of `` 666 '' in the titular track 's chorus had America 's religious right up in arms .

They accused the band of being devil worshippers , Satanists and of `` trying to pervert our kids . ''

`` When I play that song I think , well , ok , this is n't glorifying the devil , because that 's certainly not what I would do , '' says Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain , a born-again Christian .

`` It 's making an awareness that yes he 's out there , and you 've got to be aware . There is a man with 666 tattooed on his noggin somewhere . ''

Ironically , the fundamentalist reaction to `` The Number of the Beast '' packed out Iron Maiden tour gigs in every American town they visited . Kids squeezed into arenas desperate to see what was scaring their parents so badly .

Despite this marketing draw , Dickinson is keen to distance Iron Maiden from the violence for violence 's sake approach practiced by some of his contemporaries , such as musicians from the extreme Black Metal and Death Metal sub-genres .

`` We 're not interested in being extreme , '' he says .

`` We 're interested in being interesting and in animating people 's imaginations with the stories that we tell and the songs . ''

It 's an approach that chimes with what one female Iron Maiden fan , Ruth , tells us , `` I really do n't see any violence in the fans and I have been to loads of their gigs , '' she says .

`` I am in a tiny minority of women , in a room full of men wearing black -- which should seem scary , but it totally is n't . The men hold doors open for me and apologize if they bash into me . They are basically really meek and polite . ''

So while upside-down crucifixes , homicidal zombies and lashings of blood might continue to fuel our preconceptions about heavy metal music , it 's worth remembering , appearances and reality can be very different beasts indeed .

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Heavy metal used as a scapegoat according to anthropologist

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Storytelling and drama important , not violence , says Iron Maiden singer

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Heavy metal is pantomime compared to torture-porn films says NME journalist

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Iron Maiden accused of being Satanists in 1980s